Hugo Chavez says new tumour was cancerous

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday revealed that a new tumour recently removed from his pelvic region was of the same type of cancer as a baseball-sized growth extracted from that part of his body about seven months ago.

worldUpdated: Mar 05, 2012 02:03 IST

AP

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday revealed that a new tumour recently removed from his pelvic region was of the same type of cancer as a baseball-sized growth extracted from that part of his body about seven months ago.

In his first TV appearance in nine days, Chavez said the surgery and follow-up tests showed the tumour was "a recurrence of the initially diagnosed cancer."

He said "the tumour was totally extracted" and noted "the absence of lesions suggestive of cancer neither locally, neither in nearby organs, neither far away ... neither metastasis, none of this thanks to God, to the diagnosis and rapid intervention."

The 57-year-old president spoke firmly in footage recorded on Saturday in Havana while accompanied by various government ministers and older brother Adan Chavez. The president said his recuperation has been "open, progressive and rapid" in the footage aired Sunday in Venezuela.

Chavez said "still it hasn't been six days because the operation ended on the night of last Sunday." He verified the date of the recording by displaying a Saturday copy of the Cuban government newspaper Granma and a similar copy of the Venezuelan government paper Correo del Orinoco.

He has said doctors found the growth in the same pelvic area where a malignant, baseball-sized tumour was extracted in June 2011. He flew to Cuba for treatment on February 24, and his absence from the public spotlight since then has sparked speculation about his health. Chavez phoned into a show Friday on Venezuelan state television when he said he was recovering well.

"Everyone who has been operated on knows ... the impact of an operation of various hours," Chavez said in the most recent footage. "And how, above all the first day when the body begins to awaken, the pains begin, the obstacles, after one goes step by step recovering the functioning of the body, like I am recovering it."